TweakTown News Posts - Page 2149

We have teamed up with SanDisk who is giving away one of its Extreme II 240GB solid state drives!

Blaze through your day and stay ahead of deadlines while extending the life of your PC with the SanDisk Extreme II Solid State Drive (SSD). With a simple upgrade to your laptop or desktop, this SSD will increase the speed and responsiveness of your computer, providing a significant improvement to your user experience.

Today, BitFenix announced the unveiling of the newest budget-friendly addition to its already impressive lineup of high-end PC chassis. Dubbed the Shadow, BitFenix says that this case features a multitude of DIY-friendly features while still maintaining a trifecta of style, functionality, and value.

While very monolithic in design, the BitFenix Shadow follows the company's tradition of clean, ultramodern themes while still maintaining a minimalist façade. The case is finished in BitFenix's signature SoftTouch Surface, with the front door accented by a machined aluminum logo. Accent lighting is featured at the bottom of the front door, which can be switched from red to blue via a button on the top I/O panel. Also located on the top I/O panel are two USB 3.0 ports alongside HD audio ports.

It appears that Skype wants to make your video chats a little more realistic. In a recent interview with the BBC, a senior executive at Skype confirmed that the company has been developing 3-D video call technology. Mark Gillett, Microsoft's corporate vice President for Skype, said that the company had been working on the R&D side of things in its laboratories.

He said that the company has been studying the capability of 3-D screens as well as 3-D capture devices, but said that "the capture devices are not there yet" in terms of consumer viability. He said that they've already managed to get 3-D video calls working in the lab, but for the moment, the lack of a 3-D video standard for devices is the major obstacle.

"As we work with that kind of technology, you have to add multiple cameras to your computer, precisely calibrate them, and point them at the right angle," he explains. He went on to say that Skype will likely offer 1080p HD video calls to more devices than just the upcoming Xbox One.

This is something I might have skipped, because I didn't know about it until now. But the upcoming next-generation console from Sony is capable of auto-downloading your games after you've purchased them from another platform.

The capable platforms include the PS Vita or your smartphone, where after you've purchased a game using your smartphone for example, the PlayStation 4 will wake up and start downloading your game digitally. A very awesome feature. After the PS4 is finished downloading your game, it will go back to sleep.

This auto-downloading feature is great for those who might buy a game once they get to work, wanting to play it when they get home, so they can whip their smartphone out, make the purchase, knowing their PS4 has woken up from its slumber, downloaded the game and has it ready to go when they get home. Nice work, Sony.

Grand Theft Auto V is oh-so-close to being released, and during an exclusive look at the open-world game's soundtrack by Rolling Stone, Ivan Pavlovich, soundtrack supervisor, said that the soundtrack in GTA V is the biggest its done, with around "20 movies worth of score."

Pavlovich added: "We approached the radio stations as the musical soundscape [you experience] as you fly into L.A. One of the things we've never done in a GTA game before is a pop station; exploring that made so much sense in the context of L.A." GTA V's soundtrack is somewhat unique, too, as it's the first in the series to have its own score created by Rockstar.

Our friends over at MobileGeek have sent us a tip, and what a tip it is - they're live at Touch Taiwan, checking out the upcoming display technology that we'll see baked into our mobile devices in the coming years.

There's a lot to cover in the video, above, 4.3-inch flexible AMOLED, 960x540 resolution and just 0.2mm thick. AUO is just teasing us here, though, as this is just a technology demo. AUO also showed off a 4.7-inch 720p HD display that is ultra-thin, with the one on the left a display that we would find in a tablet on the market today.

How thin are we talking though? The one on the left, which is a conventional display is just 1.19mm thick, but AUO's tease is a tiny 0.34mm thick - just a third of the thickness of a conventional panel. Then we have AUO pushing out a 512 PPI display running 4.3-inch ultra high-density LTPS display running 1920x1080 pixels. 0.6mm thick at the border, which is beautiful.

Finally! Google is switching Google+ Hangouts to HD video, which should result in a large increase in quality. The news comes from Google's Senior VP, Engineering for Google, Vic Gundotra, reports GigaOM.

Google is switching from H.264 to VP8, which should result in better quality video, with Google's VP of Engineering, Chee Chew, stating "it will be cleaner, better video." One of the main benefits of VP8 within Hangouts in HD is it is capable of doing more, at better quality, with less horsepower. H.264 would not be capable of handling HD streams from 10 users, as it would require too much processing power.

However, there are two more DLC packs coming this fall, the Headhunter Pack and Digistruct Peak Challenge, which are both not part of the GOTY Edition. This is disappointing, you'd think Gearbox would go the whole hog and give you everything. The Borderlands 2 GOTY Edition drops on October 8 in the US for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 and on October 11 in other regions.

Saints Row IV has been out for just one week, and it has already sold over one million copies. Its publisher, Deep Silver, announced the news, taking some time within the announcement to also unveil its working on new DLC for the game.

The Presidential Pack, which includes face masks of US presidents Washington, Lincoln, Obama and George W. Bush, was exclusive to GameStop pre-orders, but can now be purchased for $2.99 on all platforms. The Grass Roots Pack, which is described as a "culturally-sensitive pack inspired by America's more remote citizenry" includes the Plunger Launcher weapon, two new outfits, and a "fancy truck, complete with a pink flamingo." This is available now on the PS3 and Steam for $2.99, and will reach the Xbox 360 sometime today.

Klemens Kundratitz, CEO of Volition and Deep Silver's parent company Koch Media said: "We are incredibly happy of the reception for Saints Row 4 as a critical and now a commercial success. The development team at Volition is second-to-none as a driving creative force in the entertainment industry and we are very proud to have them as part of the Deep Silver family."

To tell you the truth, right now, I don't know whether I want to pick up a next-gen console on launch day. The launch titles I want, such as Watch Dogs, are hitting PC, but could Microsoft swing things around this weekend at PAX in Seattle, Washington this week?

The news comes from Microsoft's Major Nelson, who said that there will be 60 Xbox One and Xbox 360 demo pods at PAX, with these games including Forza 5, Ryse, Project Spark, Killer Instinct, Battlefield 4, Kinect Sports Rivals, Fable Anniversary, Dead Rising 3 "and of course there will be other surprises at the booth, including games that I'm not at liberty to divulge... yet."

What could we expect? We could see Epic Games' unannounced next-gen new IP for one. We could be completely surprised by something totally different, such as a new title from Microsoft Studios, but other than that, we'll have to wait a few days to find out. Our own Trace Hagan will be driving down to the event, covering it for us here at TweakTown.